Improvement in carpet-stretchers



W. W. P 0 TT S.

CARPET-S-TRETCHER.

Patnted Nov.28,1876.

N.184,'9-oz.

UNITED STATES WILLlAM w. POTTS, or SWEDELAND, PENNSYLVANIA.

IMPROVEMENT IN CARPET-STRETCHERS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 184,902, dated November 28, 1876; application filed October 11, 1876.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, VVILLIAM W. Forms, of Swedeland, in the county of Montgomery and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Carpet- Stretchers, which improvement is fully set forth in the following specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure l is a perspective view of my said improved stretcher applied to the purpose for which it is intended, and Fig. 2 a perspective view of .the wedge-plate and a portion of its flexible attachment. v

Letters Patent of the United States No. 150,257, dated April 28, 1874, were granted to me for a carpet-stretcher in which an oblong block of wood, having a curved under surface provided with a fixed covering'of gumelastic roughened or grooved longitudinallyon its outer surface, and fixed to the lower end of a lover or handle connected, by a flexible band or chain, to a wedge-shaped plate provided with spur-projections on its under surface, so arranged that when the plate is wedged between the base-board and the floor of the room in which the carpet to be stretched and secured is spread for the purpose, and the gum surface of the block applied'thereon, with the handle or lever in an upright position and the block pressed down firmly on the carpet, and at the same time the handle borne downward toward the carpet, the latter can be easily stretched forward into close contact with the base-board, for the purpose of being subsequently tacked down.

In the practical useof said carpet-stretcher in the hands of a delicate or weakly person the pressure required to keep the block from slipping while the handle is being pushed into the inclined position or downward toward the floor is objectionable, and, moreover, the

cost of gum-elastic has become so great as to prevent the sale of the stretcher at a reasonable profit to the manufacturer; and the object of my present invention is to avoid the said objections by dispensing with the gumfaced block, and substituting therefor a pair of clamping-jaws, whereby a crease (which can be readily made by hand in the loose carpet, parallel to the base-board and at about i two feet from the forward edge of the carpet)v can be readily grasped between the clampingjaws and the carpet stretched forward into contact with the base-board of the room, ready for tacking, without the expenditure of any objectionable labor by the most delicate person.

Referring to the drawings, 0 is the Wedgeshaped plate, having a thin knife-edge in front and two or more sharp-pointed projections or spurs, 2 2, at its rear under side, and an upward-turned portion, 3, to which a flexible strap, B, or chain is attached, so that when the knife-edge of the wedge-plate is pushed in between the base-board and the floor of the room, and the upward-turned portion, 3, drawn obliquely upward or outward, the spurs 2.2 will become sufficiently indented into the floor, to prevent the said plate from being thereby withdrawn,as described in my said Letters Patent. But in my present improvement the opposite end of the strap or chain B is attached to the upper or power end of a lever of the first order, a, the lower end of which is in the form of an inverted T, for the purpose of giving it a broad griping-jaw, and is attached bya fulcrum-pin to a correspondinglyjawed lever, a, the upper arm of which is in the form of a socket, into which latter the lower end of a stiff wooden lever-handle, A, is secured, and consequently, if the two upper arms of the levers a a are pressed together into contact, the jaws thereof will be opened or separated, and if the upper arms be drawn apart the jaws below will be closed.

The levers a and ct are intended to be made of iron, brass, or any sufficiently strong metal. The wedgeeplate G is also made of brass.

This carpet-stretcher is applied and operated as follows: The carpet having been spread out upon the floor of the room and one end tacked fast close to the base-board,the operator folds a crease across, about two feet from the opposite end of the carpet and parallel with the base-board before it. He or she, as the case may be, then inserts the knife-edge end of the wedge-plate 0 between the base-board and floor of the room, and, taking the clampinglevers in hand by grasping their power ends together, thus opens their jaws, which are then applied over the raised crease in the carpet, and the lever-arm A then turned down ward toward the operator, who thus causes the jaws of the levers a, and a to close firmly upon the crease in the carpet. The upper arm of lever a being held back by the chain or strap B, and the lever-handle A then pressed downward toward the floor by the operator, the carpet is readily stretched forward into contact with the base-board. The operator then drives a stay-tack through the carpet into the floor, which holds the carpet in the po sition reached by said operation. The operator now raises the lever-arm A, and thus releases the carpet-crease, detaches the wedgeplate, and moves the stretcher laterally along to any other requisite portion of the crease in the carpet, and proceeds in the same manner and removes or withdraws the row of staytacks, and consequently allows the carpet to contract and take up the crease.

In using this stretcher an ordinary-sized person can stand on the carpet and be drawn along with it without-any materially-increased exertion in operating the handle A.

It will be readily seen that, as the jaws clamp two thicknesses 'of carpet during each operation of the stretcher, there will not be any danger of tearing a carpet sized to the room.

I claim as my invention- In a carpet-stretcher, the combination, substantially as described, of the clamping-levers a. and a with the handle A, band or chain B, and wedge-plate Q, for the purpose set forth.

. WILLIAM W. POTTS. Witnesses:

BENJ'. MORISON, WM. H. MoRIsoN. 

